Renowned British soprano Jane Eaglen teaching and singing at Baldwin-Wallace College

Gary Smith Soprano Jane Eaglen sang Brunnhilde in Wagner's "Die Walkure" at Seattle Opera in 2000. She recently joined the voice faculty at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music.

What in the world is Bruennhilde doing in Berea? Jane Eaglen is so glad you asked.

The jovial British soprano, considered one of the great Wagner singers of recent decades, has spent much of her career in international opera houses singing the most vibrant Valkyrie of them all in the composer's "Ring" cycle and key dramatic roles in other works Wagnerian and beyond.

But Eaglen is now a happy resident of Northeast Ohio. She and her husband bought a house in Strongsville, not far from the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, where she joined the voice faculty last month.

Along with teaching 16 students this year, Eaglen is continuing her performance career, focusing more on orchestra concerts -- music (no surprise) mostly by Wagner -- than on full-scale opera productions.

She'll make her first local appearance since moving to the region on Friday, when she teams in Wagner excerpts with the B-W Symphony Orchestra, conductor Dwight Oltman and tenor Timothy Mussard, another B-W faculty member with major Wagnerian credentials.

Eaglen will sing a signature piece, the "Liebestod" from "Tristan und Isolde," and the Senta-Erik love duet from "The Flying Dutchman" with Mussard.

"I love any opportunity to sing Wagner," the soprano said recently between lessons. "I don't care where it is."

PREVIEW

Jane Eaglen

What: The British soprano, a new faculty member at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, makes her first appearance with the B-W Symphony Orchestra. The program, led by Dwight Oltman, includes music by Wagner and Beethoven and also features tenor Timothy Mussard.

When: 8 p.m. Friday.

Where: B-W's Kulas Musical Arts Build ing, 96 Front St., Berea.

Tickets: Free. Call 440-826-2369.

That goes for Berea, which is hardly New York, Milan, San Francisco or other cities where Eaglen has performed Wagner with renowned opera companies. And this is fine with the singer who (accurately) calls herself "a really straightforward, down-to-earth kind of person."

Yet even music lovers who are familiar with Eaglen's achievements must wonder why she decided to plant professional roots in Berea.

As the soprano tells it in her typically buoyant and candid way, she needed a change.

"I had done the travel thing almost 20 years, for almost 11 months every year," said Eaglen, 50. "It was great, but I just don't want to be traveling that much."

She had another reason. In recent years, Eaglen realized she was no longer happy at the school of music at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she'd taught for 11 years.

Then Eaglen heard about the faculty opening at Baldwin-Wallace, a school she recalled from a conversation with an eminent colleague, soprano Carol Vaness, whose cancellation in the title role of "Norma" at Seattle Opera in 1994 prompted Eaglen's first big American success.

Vaness told her she'd been impressed with the positive atmosphere at B-W when she gave a master class there in the 1980s.

So Eaglen auditioned for and won the B-W post, to the delight of the college, especially conservatory director Peter Landgren.

"When I introduced her to the college faculty, I said that everything about this woman's background screamed diva," said Landgren. "But spend five minutes with her, and she'll show you who Jane Eaglen really is. Having someone in our midst with her life experiences is an awesome feeling."

Eaglen's experience includes Bruennhilde in many "Ring" cycles, including the Met production in the late 1990s, and such roles as Isolde, Norma, Aida and Turandot -- several in English with London's English National Opera, where she began her career.

Eaglen is no stranger to the region. She made her U.S. debut, not in an opera house but at Blossom Music Center, where she sang Tosca in a 1992 concert performance led by Leonard Slatkin. A decade later, she brought her Bruennhilde to Severance Hall in concert performances of "Siegfried."

From the time she was 18, the pianist from Manchester, England, knew she was destined for roles requiring a clarion voice.

Eaglen landed a contract with English National Opera at the age of 21. She came to the United States for the first time with the company singing a small part in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience," including a performance at the Met, and then worked her way up to principal roles.

By the mid-1990s, Eaglen was in demand everywhere for opera, concerts and recordings. She can be heard on the soundtrack of Ang Lee's film "Sense and Sensibility," performing two songs by Patrick Doyle she received the day before the recording session.

In recent years, Eaglen has appeared only occasionally in opera, a manifestation, she said, of changes in operatic approach.

"People are looking for different things," said Eaglen. "I'm a big girl. I don't have a problem with it. The music and the singing are the least important things a director is looking to put onstage. I don't have issues with it. That's life.

"I think people go to opera for the voices. If directors don't have the right voices, they're missing the point of opera. There's something visceral about hearing a voice unamplified that prompts a physical reaction."

Eaglen has no intention of categorizing the young voices she's nurturing at B-W. She believes every singer is different and requires different guidance, as well as positive reinforcement.

In the short time she's been in Berea, Eaglen already is impressed with the high standards.

"I'm really excited," she said. "It's nice to get voices before they're messed up. It's always harder if something's not quite right and you have to fix it. Young singers are impatient. You have to build them and wait for them to become more mature."

And singers in general?

"They're crazy," said Eaglen. "We joke about it. You have to have a certain personality to get up there and do it. Singers think of the voice in the third person. It's like an entity you have within -- an alien child. You have to learn to control it."

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.